2014 NFL Season

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Tomlin maybe, but no way Andy Reid belongs in that discussion. John has a ring and Jim has won an NFC Championship, as well as made the conference finals in each of his first three seasons.

Jim Harbaugh - .745 winning percentage, .625 in playoffs
John Harbaugh - .650 winning percentage, .692 in playoffs
Mike Tomlin - .629 winning percentage, .625 in playoffs
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Andy Reid - .588 winning percentage, .500 in playoffs

Also, how many times have the Harbaugh brothers appointed their offensive line coach to be their defensive coordinator?

Aside from winning percentage I would give Andy the edge over Jim in terms of actual coaching ability. Jim has had a great deal of success coaching a well stacked SF team. Reid, on the other hand, has done a favourable job of coaching, arguably, weaker Philly and KC teams. Philly, in particular, had a lot of personnel issues (TO, Vick) some years which had to be overcome. Reid can actually coach and pull players together and get a team to perform.

http://kckingdom.com/2014/07/16/andy...est-coach-nfl/

[troutman]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I'd say the top 5 coaches in the NFL at the moment are Carroll, Payton, the Harbaugh brothers, and maybe Belicheck.

Maybe Bill? He is the best there ever was, the best there is, the best there ever will be.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by troutman

Maybe Bill? He is the best there ever was, the best there is, the best there ever will be.

Everyone has a shelf life. I think you could easily make the argument that much of the Pats' success the last few years have been due to playing in a really poor division, as evidenced by their performances in the playoffs. Is Bill top 5 all time? Absolutely. At this moment, I'd say no.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Everyone has a shelf life. I think you could easily make the argument that much of the Pats' success the last few years have been due to playing in a really poor division, as evidenced by their performances in the playoffs. Is Bill top 5 all time? Absolutely. At this moment, I'd say no.

I would argue his best coaching job has been the last few years, where he has still won the division with a re-building defence, and significant injuries.

And if the division has been weak, the Pats always get a tough schedule vs the rest of the league. Ex. have to play Manning every year.

[trackercowe]

I don't think the Pats have necessarily been awful in the playoffs the last five seasons, they have a 4-5 record, and have been competitive in all but two games. Not a great record, but there are very few coaches that even have a comparable record.

[Flabbibulin]

Regardless of them being garbage yards, it is clear from Monday that Jimmy Garoppolo has an insanely fast release... Will be curious to see in the coming years if he is the long term plan or just another back up.

And apparently chicks dig him... a reason for my wife to still (kind of) cheer for the Pats once Brady is gone.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Aside from winning percentage I would give Andy the edge over Jim in terms of actual coaching ability. Jim has had a great deal of success coaching a well stacked SF team. Reid, on the other hand, has done a favourable job of coaching, arguably, weaker Philly and KC teams. Philly, in particular, had a lot of personnel issues (TO, Vick) some years which had to be overcome. Reid can actually coach and pull players together and get a team to perform.

http://kckingdom.com/2014/07/16/andy...est-coach-nfl/

When Jim Harbaugh was hired, it was a 6-10 team (down from 8-8 the previous year) and expected to be very bad again.

He's a very good coach, sideline antics aside.

I think Belicheck has a problem in that he believes his system is more important than the talent. That may be the case in filling in certain places but this year it looks like the lack of talent has caught up to them. You can't always be moving down in the draft and stockpiling picks - sometimes you need to spend some of those picks for talent.

[Sylvanfan]

Bill and Sean Payton have both had elite level QBs to work with. Whereas we have seen The record John Fox has put up with Peyton Manning. At least we saw Bellechick still get a 11-5 team without Brady. How would Sean Payton have done if

I think Reid is a top 8 coach, really good offensive guy in particular. But John Fox I believe with Tomlin are both better.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Seriously? The guy has a career win percentage of .635 in the regular season, .600 in the playoffs, has taken the Saints to two NFC championships, won a Super Bowl, won three division titles, been to the playoffs in five out of his seven seasons as head coach, and has had a top 15 offense every year as a head coach. I'd say most importantly he's taken the Saints from being perennial afterthoughts to being perennially feared by every other team in the league. Who is out there that you think is better than Payton at the moment?

I'd say the top 5 coaches in the NFL at the moment are Carroll, Payton, the Harbaugh brothers, and maybe Belicheck. The Saints would be insane to fire Payton.

Drew Brees brought the Saints into a winning organization, not Payton. The guy has had a stacked team in all 7 seasons he has been head coach and yet his teams simply cannot win on the road. If they can't win on the road they are going no where fast. A team with that amount of incredible talent on both sides of the ball should not be 1-3.

[Sainters7]

Actually weird stat, but at least as of last season, since 2009 the Saints owned the NFL's best road record (I'm sure this has changed after going 1-9 in their last 10 reg season road games, but a surprising stat nonetheless).

I definitely argree that Payton's play-calling has been looking a bit stale since last season, and maybe his shelf life in N.O. is winding down, but I'm not ready to chase him out of town yet. The guy's the best coach in Saints history and it isn't close, I still have nightmares from the Ditka years. Payton never would've achieved this much success turning the franchise around without Brees, but I also don't think Brees would've transformed into being in the same discussion as Brady/Manning without Payton either. They inject confidence in each other. Just look how quickly the Saints fell off - including Brees, who looked like a different QB - in 2012 without Payton; something that really surprised me at the time.

I give Payton a ton of credit for turning the Saints organization around. I remember reading articles in '06 TC his first year, when he ran a rigid, almost military camp in bare bones Millsaps College to help transform the team identity, and was systematically rooting out players who didn't fit the "Patriots mold" style, mature team he was trying to build. Guys like Joe Horn, Donte Stallworth, etc. There was that story of a player (Wayne Gandy?) who actually had a rocking chair in the locker room. Payton flipped out when he saw it and had it destroyed. You need a mature team in a city with as many vice distractions as New Orleans, and Payton recognized that from the start. He changed them from a dynamic but mentally fragile group into a cohesive unit basically overnight in '06.

Payton's play-calling is certainly part of the problem so far this year, but I refuse to put it all on him or Ryan. The DL may be the worst in the NFL right now, which is unbelievable with Jordan, Galette and Hicks. They should be straight embarrassed with their performance so far, they produced zero sacks and only one HURRY on Romo all game (which he turned into a 20+ yard scramble). The secondary is a huge concern right now too, I'm really worried Vaccaro hasn't completely recovered from that off-season injury. He looks like a shadow of the player from last year so far.

They're really missing Ingram to balance out the run game too, they look way too much like the one dimensional, 07-08 Saints teams without him. They're also badly missing a big bodied WR, as Colston appears to be regressing rapidly. It's quite a young team they have right now, lots of dynamic playmakers who need to toughen up in tight coverage.

I think with Stills finally shaking off the effects of that pre-season injury, they need to get him more involved now. Dude was a stud as a rookie last year, but he seems to be forgotten a bit after drafting Cooks. They need to start looking Stills' way more, he's shown he routinely makes catches in traffic, which the Saints are struggling with this year. Speaking of Cooks, Payton needs to stop trying to use him like he's Sproles Jr exclusively. The guy runs a 4.3 40, and routinely made the deep catch at Oregon St, yet Payton seems to exclusively use him in screens, misdirections, etc.. Just trying to make him the YAC king like Bush/Sproles. Hey Sean, the guy's a RECEIVER, how bout sending him deep sometimes???

EDIT: haha geez, I need to hire an editor for my posts or something, I don't know how to be succinct. Coles notes version: Payton's play-calling is looking a bit dated recently and I fear DC's have finally figured him out, but the Saints woes so far go much deeper than just him.

[Sainters7]

Just to add, I will say Payton's demeanor on the sidelines/PC's does concern me lately. He seems to be missing that patented fire he always had. I wasn't a fan of that old money country club setting at the Greenbrier in W.V. for TC either, something just seems...off about him lately. I'm concerned with him as well, I'm just not ready to boot him out of town yet.

The players need to quit "eating the cheese" and be accountable for their performance this season to date.

[Bobblehead]

The 49er beat writers are all applauding an ESPN article talking about Jim Harbaugh - they all say this is the closest anyone has gotten yet to pigeon-holing him.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11...aos-difficulty

[Senator Clay Davis]

Pigeon holing Harbaugh is remarkably easy: He's a 50 year old man with the emotional maturity of a 13 year old. Great coach but easily the most immature coach I've ever seen by some margin.

[DOOM]

Awesome start!

Keep it up Packers!

[DropIt]

Ponder back starting and no AP... does this even count as an NFL game?

[Spuds_Buckley]

Originally Posted by DropIt

Ponder back starting and no AP... does this even count as an NFL game?

Nope. This is turning into another Thursday Night Snoozefest

[Skaloper]

Originally Posted by Spuds_Buckley

Nope. This is turning into another Thursday Night Snoozefest

Time to have Jarius Wright start throwing the ball.

[dirk diggler]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

When Jim Harbaugh was hired, it was a 6-10 team (down from 8-8 the previous year) and expected to be very bad again.

He's a very good coach, sideline antics aside.

I think Belicheck has a problem in that he believes his system is more important than the talent. That may be the case in filling in certain places but this year it looks like the lack of talent has caught up to them. You can't always be moving down in the draft and stockpiling picks - sometimes you need to spend some of those picks for talent.

So true, if Belichik drafts some defensive help all those years he was stockpiling picks, you could realisticaly say that the Pats might have 5 SB's..... based on how close those 2 losses to the Giants were.....

[kevman]

Originally Posted by Spuds_Buckley

Nope. This is turning into another Prime Time Snoozefest

Fixed. The NFL is doing a great job this year of putting some terrible games on prime time! I can't wait for the Seahawks Redskins game on Monday!

[Senator Clay Davis]

Nice to see Thursday Night Football is having by far it's worst season ever. Let us pray it gets canceled